having a maid

so we have a maid, which i also had in rwanda but i revolt against, generally, because i feel like i should be able to keep the house clean on my own but of course i can't because there are clothes to wash by hand and floors to clean with this squeegee thing and i'm gone 12 hours a day. (maybe i should just suck it up and clean after my twelve hours of work, but anyone who knows how crabby i get when i don't get enough sleep would veto that idea immediately.) so we have a maid. i'm okay with that. it's lovely to come home to a clean kitchen and freshly ironed clothes.

and you'd think with a maid, we would have no roommate issues at all related to the cleanliness of the house. not so. our issues now relate to a fundamental question: what is the maid supposed to do? two of us maintain that the maid is there to help us with the stuff we can't do for ourselves - the laundry, for example, and maybe some cooking. Others in the house, whose names shall remain unmentioned, although it is not all the remaining members of the household, so don't go accusing anyone, believe that the entire purpose of having a maid is that we don't have to do anything in the house. they would leave dishes from the saturday party for the maid on monday morning, leaving the house in filth all day sunday and, this week, monday and tuesday as well, since the maid was home with a sick child. they want the maid to make their beds.

never have i so appreciated all those years of clearing the table and washing the dishes in liberia. of course, it's not my house alone, so i can't insist that the dishes get done after dinner except by doing them all myself. i can't insist that the beds get made unless i make them all myself. we're left with that same old roommate dynamic: should i do the dishes for the rest of the house (and be irritated with them for making more work for me) or should i leave the dishes of the rest of the house for the maid to do (and be irritated with them for treating her badly)?

also, i don't like the word "maid." it sounds bad. but really, what word sounds any better? any way you put it, we are hiring someone to clean up our messes. my egalitarianism rebels.